Lives of foster parents can be challenging

Thank you so very much for the wonderful article in last Sunday's paper regarding foster care. The article articulated the life of a foster parent exactly. I know because I too am a foster parent and have been for many years. I have two very young children placed with our family through foster care, as well as two teenagers we have adopted from foster care.

One aspect of a foster parent's life which was not mentioned in the article is the tremendous boost that is given to foster children from Yocha Dehe Wintun Community Foundation, for the second year, with a much appreciated $50,000 grant. With this funding, Woodland Community College's Foster & Kinship Care Education program now offers new, higher levels of support for foster children 6 to 20 years old.

This funding compliments the generous First 5 Integrated Family Support Initiative grant which has provided for its youngest children, those 0 to 5 years old, for the past seven years!

With the benevolence of Yocha Dehe Wintun Community and First 5 Yolo funding, a positive and very definite trend is observed -- local children are being placed much more often into local foster homes -- which is each grant's basic goal. Because of these generous grants, area children stay within the communities that they know and near family as they work on getting their lives in order. There is no way that I can express just how important this can be in a child's life.

The life of a foster parent can, at times, be very challenging and I believe we would be remiss in not thanking both Yocha Dehe Wintun Community Foundation and First 5 Yolo, for their continuing interest in improving the lives of foster children in Yolo County.